Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich rolled out an unusual Ronald Reagan Dinner speech tonight, spending nearly half of his allotted time praising his fellow candidates and the other half describing his general-election campaign strategy.

If he is the Republican nominee, Gingrich said he would challenge incumbent Democrat Barack Obama to seven three-hour un-moderated debates in the style of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. And, he said, if Obama refuses, he will follow Lincoln’s 1860 campaign tactic of following his opponent and speaking at every place he does.

“If the president has not yet agreed, I will announce that from that date forward for the rest of the campaign, the White House will be my scheduler and wherever the president appears, I will appear there as well,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich spent more than four minutes heaping praise on the four other candidates present, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum, and joked that he would have complimented Herman Cain and Mitt Romney, too, if they had showed up.

“I am here with very fine competitors, but no opponents, he said. “We only have one opponent. That’s Barack Obama.”

But, he said, he had qualifications that all the other Republicans did not.

Gingrich recalled his experience as the U.S. House speaker in the 1990s, during which time he said he balanced the federal budget, led an effort to cut taxes and helped elect Republican majorities for the first time in decades.

“To get the scale of change we need, we need someone who understands the legislative branch, somebody who understands how to get things done in Washington, somebody with a track record for building a national movement that can in fact bring pressure to bear in Washington,” he said.

Gingrich called his candidacy “the most substantive candidacy of modern times,” and referenced his new “Contract with America,” although he didn’t describe any details of the wide-ranging plan.